An Evaluation Of The Hate Speech Bill And Its Breach On Democratic Doctrines In Nigeria (A Review Of Public Perception)

An Evaluation Of The Hate Speech Bill And Its Breach On Democratic Doctrines In Nigeria (A Review Of Public Perception)

Chapter One

Preface

Background Of The Study

Republic is arbitrated as the most popular system of government in the world. It’s popularly seen as the government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Republic as an testament is the gospel of governance which sets a high decoration on the introductory freedoms or abecedarian mortal rights of citizens, the rule of law, the right to property, the free inflow of information and the right of choice between indispensable political positions. Simply put, republic is a system of politics in which sovereignty is vested in the people rather than in a small crowd or an coven, where the rule of law, maturity rule, and constitutionalism are introductory guiding principles of governance.

Nigeria joined the league of popular nations in 1999. One of the cardinal points of a true republic is freedom. The capability to be free is most expressed in one ‘s capacity to express himself freely without any physical or cerebral pitfalls( by the government or else). moment we’ve social media which permits individualities or groups to sit in the comfort of their bedrooms or services and, with a click of the mouse or a valve on the screen, express themselves freely to millions of other druggies who aren’t confined by the physically defined borders and boundaries of countries or regions. still, freedom of expression and the press mean the liberty to say what bone wishes to say, subject to the consequences under the law, as the case may be, which laws must be fair and nicely maintainable in a indigenous republic. therefore, at anytime when this freedom of speech is interdicted, it infringes on the abecedarian mortal right of freedom of expression and that of the press.

lately, Nigerians were faced with the news of a veritably controversial bill being considered by the Senate. The proposed law, intimately known as the detest Speech Bill, is patronized by Senator AliyuSabiAbdullahi, president of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs. The detest Speech Bill, according to its guarantor in the Senate, seeks to exclude hate speech and discourage importunity on the grounds of race, religion, or race, among others. It prescribes stiff penalties for offences similar as ethnical abomination. Any person who uses, publishes, presents, produces, plays, provides, distributes and/ or directs the performance of any material, written and/ or visual, which is hanging , vituperative, or affronting or involves the use of hanging , vituperative, or insulting words, commits an offence, it states( Punch, 2018). still, the penalties are a jail judgment of not lower than five times or a forfeiture of not lower than N10 million or both for these offenses, If this isn’t scary enough. Circumscribing it all is the tradition of the death penalty, where any form of hate speech results in the death of another person( Punch, 2018). detest speeches are utterances, compartmented documents, advertorials, adaptations, or any form of literature that’s used to attack an individual or a group – religious, social, political, business, gender, or race. In some countries, detest speech can fall under the law of sedition, incitement to violence, verbal abuse and the likes. While some people claim that the intention of classifying the hate speech bill as a felonious act infringes on the rights of citizens to freedom of expression as guaranteed in the Constitution, others hold the view that it’s a breach of popular doctrine.

Statement Of The Problem

The freedom of the general public, anyone and everyone, including the press and civil society associations, to admit and to conduct ideas and information by speech, published word, and other media is guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution both in sections 22 and 39 of the Constitution. Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution provides as follows Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to admit and conduct ideas and information without hindrance.

still, since the preface of the detest Speech Bill lately, the debate about what constitutes hate speech, particularly on social media, has come a new public discussion. Critical sections of society, the mass media, civil society, pressure groups, academia, pens and creative/ performing artists that may bear the main mass of the offensive law have been curiously and dangerously indifferent, as only a many voices have raised the alarm. numerous of them are of the opinion that the hate speech bill is a breach of true popular principles, hence it’s uncalled for. thus, it’s upon the premise that this study seeks to estimate the hate speech bill as a breach of popular principles in Nigeria as attained from the public perspective.

Ideal Of The Study

The main focus of this study is to present an evaluation of the hate speech bill and its breach on popular doctrines in Nigeria. Specifically the study seek to

1. Ascertain the nature nature of hate speech.

2. Examine the factors that led to establishment of hate speech bill.

3. probe if the hate speech bill is an violation to the freedom of expression.

4. Determine if the hate speech is ground on popular doctrine in Nigeria

Exploration Hypothesis

HO1 The hate speech bill isn’t an violation to the freedom of expression.

HI1 The hate speech bill is an violation to the freedom of expression.

HO2 The hate speech bill isn’t a ground on popular doctrine of Nigeria

HO2 The hate speech bill is a ground on popular doctrine of Nigeria.

Significance Of The Study

Findings from the study will be significantly applicable to the government, popular social media CEO’s, the general public and for academic purposes. Social media possessors hope the study will enlighten them on the need to establish a medium for verification of information participated by druggies as well as review the hate bill in such a way that it doesn’t infringe on the freedom of speech of citizens and make a mockery of Nigerian republic. More so for the government, the study will enable them to initiate an agreement with social media possessors used by their citizens and come up with nonsupervisory and filtering functions in order to check misinformation participated by those platforms. Eventually, the study will contribute empirically to the body of knowledge and serve as a reference material for both scholars and scholars who wish to conduct farther studies in affiliated fields.

Compass Of The Study

The compass of this study borders on the evaluation of the hate speech bill and its ground on popular doctrines in Nigeria. It will ascertain the nature nature of hate speech and what factors led to the inauguration of hate speech bill. It’ll ascertain if the inauguration of the hate speech bill is a breach on the popular doctrine of Nigeria indeed as limits the freedom of speech of Citizens. The study is still demarcated to Facebook druggies in Edo State.

Limitation Of The Study

This exploration design, like all mortal trials, had some challenges that hovered to ail the study’s completion. One of the reasons is that the time distributed for this work was so limited that the experimenter didn’t have enough time to complete the task completely. During data collection, the experimenter also had to put forth redundant trouble to understand the repliers’ interview schedules, several of whom fell into the incomprehensible age group. Also, there were finance and transportation constraints to deal with. inadequate finances tend to stymie the effectiveness of the experimenter in sourcing the applicable accoutrements , literature, or information and in the process of data collection( internet, questionnaire, interview).

Description Of Terms

detest Speech Public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group grounded on commodity similar as race, religion, coitus, or sexual exposure.

detest Speech Bill detest speech bill is a proposed legislation under consideration by a council in order to regulate public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group grounded on commodity similar as race, religion, coitus, or sexual exposure participated on media platforms.

Popular Doctrine Democratic principles are reflected in all eligible citizens being equal before the law and having equal access to legislative processes. similar as Legal equivalency, political freedom and rule of law are frequently linked as foundational characteristics for a well- performing republic.

mortal Right mortal rights are moral principles or morals for certain norms of mortal geste and are regularly defended in external and transnational law.